


Forever and a Day

by rangerhitomi



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: M/M, Pokemon Journey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 11:17:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3408587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Durbe and Nasch always knew they wanted to be Pokemon Trainers together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever and a Day

They’d always known they would be Trainers together, that they would go on their adventures around the world and make new friends and try new things. Durbe was older than Nasch by a couple of years, and he  _waited_ ; the new rules that said trainers had to be sixteen (for their own safety; there had been far too many instances of children getting hurt and kidnapped and disappearing for the regional Leagues to ignore anymore) were disappointing but not unreasonable, and when Nasch is finally old enough, they go together to get their first Pokémon.

Nasch likes water types and Pokémon with teeth, so he picks Totodile, and Durbe is intrigued by the “cuter” Pokémon, something the other boys they grew up with had teased him for, but when he holds his Chikorita for the first time and it nuzzles his face, he doesn’t care. He is going to go on a journey with his best friend and this wonderful new companion, and nothing could be better than that.

* * *

 

They’re north of Mahogany Town so Nasch can do some training for his seventh Gym challenge, and also to investigate rumors of strangely colored Pokémon in the Lake of Rage. Durbe’s curious and Nasch is eager but they’re both tired halfway there and it’s getting dark anyway so they stop for the night and roll out their sleeping bags; soon they have a fire going and their Pokémon are all sitting together eating.

Durbe pulls his canned stew close and starts eating, and Nasch sits next to him with his own stew. They’d travelled for months together and he was used to the mediocre travelling food, but Nasch still liked to complain good-naturedly about it from time to time, and this was one of those times.

“Someday I’ll be the Champion,” Nasch says, gazing at his Pokémon, “and they’ll give me endorsements and I’ll be famous and I’ll be able to stay at fancy hotels at night and eat stew made with fresh vegetables and meat.”

With a smile, Durbe follows his friend’s gaze. Bayleef and Feraligatr are chattering animatedly; their matching Crobat – evolved from Zubat that they had caught early on in their journey – are nestled together, having eaten quickly; Durbe’s Sylveon and Nasch’s Vaporeon have finished their food and are chasing each other along the river bank; and Durbe’s Togetic and Slowking and Nasch’s Kingdra and Houndoom eat quietly but enthusiastically. “Would you trade the experience of dreaming under the stars for sleeping under silk canopies, Nasch?”

Nasch tilts his head at Durbe and leans back, a tiny smile on his face. “Depends. When I wake in the morning, will you be there?”

Durbe feels the warmth in his face, but he can’t help the shy grin on his own face. They’ve been through so much together these past months. Getting lost in caves, catching matching Zubat, cheering Nasch on through Gym battle after Gym battle, having their first trade evolution (Slowking suits Durbe more, he thinks, and Kingdra works with Nasch’s team better), gambling all their money away at the Game Corner and having to spend a week doing odd jobs around Goldenrod in order to have enough money to buy these tins of stew, getting lost at sea on the way to Cianwood City…

Durbe sets down his empty can and falls back on his sleeping bag, facing Nasch. “Do you promise not to forget me when you’re famous?”

Nasch sort of laughs quietly and pulls his sleeping bag a little closer. “You’ve been there every step of the way, Durbe. What kind of Trainer would ditch his precious comrade like that?”

“Precious comrade, hm?”

They look at each other for a long moment and Durbe suddenly feels… not uncomfortable, but nervous, or maybe anxious. It’s been maybe three days since either of them have bathed and (Durbe is suddenly conscious of this fact) they’re both kind of dirty and Nasch’s hair looks kind of limp (not that Durbe’s is any better, probably) and why is he even thinking about their gross travelling habits anyway.

He’s thinking about reaching across and taking Nasch’s hand, and he’s not _sure_ but he thinks Nasch might be having similar thoughts by the way he rubs his fingers together and gazes at Durbe’s hand, but before Durbe can capitalize on this bizarre desire, he gets a powerful blast of water right in the face.

He splutters and sits up and  _great now my sleeping bag is soaked_ and he pulls off his glasses, scowling. Sylveon looks like he’s trying to hold back a giggle and Vaporeon looks supremely pleased with himself; Nasch is definitely laughing and he sits up.

“Er, sorry about that,” Nasch says, but it’s not a sincere apology, and Durbe frowns at him as he tries to find one dry spot on his shirt to dry his glasses on, but there’s nothing, so he sighs and puts his glasses back on, thinking that at least they’ll dry themselves eventually, and  _hey, I was thinking about bathing anyway_. “Looks like they were playing and Vaporeon missed, huh?”

Durbe frowns at Sylveon, who’s put on his best innocent face. “I’m sure it was completely an accident.”

“Yeah,” Nasch says soothingly, completely missing Durbe’s crappy attempt at sarcasm. “Here, you’re soaked-”

He leans forward and starts to undo the buttons on Durbe’s nightshirt, and Durbe flushes about as red as he’s ever been, and grabs Nasch’s hands. “What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you out of your wet clothes?” Nasch says, squinting at Durbe in bewilderment. “You’re going to get sick otherwise-”

“I can do it,” Durbe says too quickly, and he turns away a little as his fingers fumble on the buttons.

Nasch’s hands find Durbe’s again and Durbe closes his eyes. Years of being best friends, months of being alone together, travelling the world and getting into trouble and rolling out their sleeping bags next to one another every night as they stared at the stars and dreamed…

He feels Nasch’s face close to his warm cheeks and Nasch’s fingers wrap around his, and the Pokémon aren’t making a single noise and Durbe knows now that this had been their plan at the start, and who knows a Trainer’s heart better than his Pokémon.

Durbe almost turns his head but he can’t.

“Nasch,” he whispers instead, and Nasch lets out a quiet breath against Durbe’s ear.

“Yeah?”

They’re full of dreams but they still have a long way to go to accomplish them, and Nasch can’t afford to be unfocused. “When you become Champion, and you have your endorsements and your silk sheets and your five-star dinners… what next?”

There’s a long moment of quiet and Nasch sighs and pulls his head away, but he keeps holding Durbe from behind. Durbe doesn’t complain. It’s chilly, with his wet clothes, and Nasch is warm.

“I’ll go to another region,” he says finally, “and I’ll do the same thing all over again.”

“That’s ambitious.”

“Will you come with me?”

This time, Durbe turns his head, and they’re so close together that his natural instinct is to pull away out of embarrassment. But he doesn’t. “I waited for you, you know. You’re stuck with me.”

Nasch laughs and presses their foreheads together. “So I take it your answer is yes? When I wake in my silk sheets and my five-star breakfasts, you’ll be there?”

Durbe looks past his best friend, toward their Pokémon, sitting together with smiles on their faces. Durbe wasn’t a battler. He liked studying the bonds between Trainers and their Pokémon, and Nasch was an excellent study. But maybe he’d spent so long studying Nasch’s bond with his Pokémon that he hadn’t paid any attention to how close his own bond with Nasch was getting.

He smiles and pulls out of Nasch’s arms. “Only when you’re Champion, my friend.”

Nasch chuckles as Durbe turns his back to him and pulls off his wet shirt. “I guess I have more incentive to work hard, then.”


End file.
